


Hierarchy of Needs

by Not_You



Category: Watchmen (Comic), Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Sex, Aliens, M/M, Masturbation, Multi, Other, Secret Identity, Secrets, Sharing Clothes, Telepathy, Tentacle Sex, Xenophilia, kind of tentacle sex it's hard to say what to call it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 13:00:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10163558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_You/pseuds/Not_You
Summary: Written long ago for the kinkmeme, one of my many bastard children that I'm slowly moving here, this is the one where Rorschach is like Venom but much friendlier and in snazzy two-tone.  Naturally, Dan just thinks this is the coolest thing ever.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [an untitled image of a very liquid Rorschach crawling all over Walter Kovacs](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/271910) by slipstreamborne. 



> The image was linked in the original prompt, and it was very inspiring.
> 
> ETA: Sorry if you lost your bookmark when I deleted the old one! This is the same story but with more cleaning and editing, I hope you find your way here.

Rorschach arrived too late the night Kitty Genovese died. It had tracked the scent of her coming murder across the city, but not fast enough. Too weak, without a host in this filthy, lifeless air, too close to death itself. Not fast enough to wrap around her and hold her close, to give her the strength and ferocity she needed. There was nothing left when it arrived. Well, cooling flesh, but nothing that mattered. It keened and coiled around the corpse for a long time, and finally left, a black and white shade flickering through the city. Alone, always alone, and it wasn't sure how much longer it would survive without a host.

Walter had the coming day off, and was glad of it because of how sick the morning paper made him. He remembered that girl and her beautiful, beautiful unwanted dress. He had wanted it badly, but factory reps had come to take it back for resale at an outlet store. Reading the news, he thought about how well it would have worked to cover his face, so he wouldn't have to see his ugly, useless humanity, his kinship to those who had done nothing. Later on, he would only say that Rorschach came to him when he about to hurt himself. He would never elaborate, never go on to explain about the knife hovering by his face in the mirror, his thoughtful survey of his seams. Just that it came when he was about to hurt himself, spilling in through the window like a bolt of sentient cloth.

Rorschach had been following the compelling scent of Walter's rage since he had picked up the paper, and arrived just in time. It had no eyes to see but saw the knife, saw everything, the wounds in Walter's soul and how it could bind them. He screamed when it touched him, muffled and lost in Rorschach, but quieted soon. Rorschach shared its memories with him, telling him without words of the bargain they could make. Both of them craved justice, and together could do so much more to bring it about. With Rorschach, Walter Kovacs would never be helpless again. With Walter, Rorschach would never go hungry again, never have to ride the wind weak and lost, longing for a warm-blooded creature to cling to, protect, and love. It was the last that did it, Rorschach knew later, when Walter's mind was fully open to it. Symbionts did not have mothers as mammals understood it, but they understood love, and the painful lack of it.


	2. Chapter 2

Dan didn't understand why his partner was so leery of all invitations to a meal. He would drink Dan's coffee all night, with enough sugar to kill a yak, but food was apparently dead out. It was sick, how much it made Dan want to feed him. When he finally just asked Rorschach point blank why he wouldn't eat anything, he actually looked down and kicked at the floor, every line of his body saying aw, shucks. It was adorable. He had muttered something about a metabolic condition and not wanting to eat too much of Dan's food, which held him off until leftovers struck.

"C'mon, please? I'm serious, I have pounds and pounds of brisket, and it's gonna go bad and I know you've gotta be hungry!" Rorschach wavered, made some of his strange non-words. "...There's chocolate cake." That had been his ace in the hole, and as soon as he had pulled it, Dan was glad.

"...If you need assistance with a surplus..."

"Exactly!" Dan beamed at him and took his arm, hauling him upstairs to the kitchen. 

It was just as well he hadn't been exaggerating about the brisket, because Rorschach ate it all. Over ten pounds of meat vanished down his gullet, and he washed it down with three tall glasses of whole milk, then somehow managed six huge slices of cake, like a goddamn reverse clown car. 

"...Wow."

"Now do you see why I choose not to strain your hospitality?"

"Man, if you need to eat that much, I wanna help you with it. So chocolate and meat are okay?"

"More than okay. Imperative."

"What about all that white sugar?"

"Also imperative." 

Sugar, chocolate, fruit, meat, grains sparingly. It's a very weird diet, and vegetables have almost no place in it, with meat and chocolate being the most important. Watching Rorschach make himself a roast beef and dark chocolate triple-decker Dagwood was pretty fucking weird, but it gave him a warm feeling to be helping his friend, who he realized must live on stolen supplies with these caloric needs and his apparently tight budget. Then again, maybe it was tight from buying all this food. He turned it over in his mind even as he did more and more research, baffled by the utter lack of anything more than remotely similar. He could believe that Rorschach didn't know the name of his condition, but he couldn't believe that it didn't exist in scientific literature.

"There's no need to be insulting, Daniel," is what Rorschach said when Dan brought it up a few nights later, and his tone was so blandly reproving that it made Dan bite back angry swearing, hurt all over again at the fundamental inequality in their relationship. He knew nothing about the man behind the mask, and at times like this it made his blood boil. Rorschach hushed him, making him even angrier, but then he saw it too. 

They had been on the trail of an arsonist for days, and had finally caught him in action. One of the few things Dan did know about his partner is that he was afraid of fire, and when the building turned out to be the first fatal deviation from the pattern of empty buildings, they didn't have to say anything to divide the labor. Dan went in after the screaming squatters, Rorschach bolted after their fleeing prey.

Choking and dodging falling debris, Dan battled his way in and then out, leading a human chain. All of them were drunk, and he had to go back for one lost lamb. There was a horrible crash, and through the whirling sparks Dan could see Rorschach, running in despite his fears. He screamed that he was all right, terrified for his partner, and saw the heat-blurred, smoke shrouded figure turn. The people he had rescued were already staggering away, leaning on each other and cursing. He couldn't care about them, not staring into the blaze for Rorschach, his heart in his mouth. Finally, someone came bolting out. Someone slight and very naked, white skin glowing in the red light of the fire. For a moment Dan thought his hair was on fire, but as he bolted clear he saw it was just that red.


	3. Chapter 3

All Walter could think about was protecting Rorschach, who hadn't deserted him even as he ran into the fire. Now Rorschach was sheltered in his hands, its fear and pain lancing through his mind as he ran out too fast to burn his feet. At first he wanted to just keep running, past Daniel and into the night, but he knew he wouldn't. "Nite Owl," he croaked as he reached his partner, "help me."

"...Rorschach?"

The relief was so profound he couldn't even care about being naked, blundering into Nite Owl's arms. "Have to get away from here. Need to tend to it. Need clothes."

"Tend to what?" Daniel asked, taking Walter's ugliness, sudden appearance and apparent madness in stride with that broad-mindedness that was a madness of its own. 

Ordinarily Walter was torn between punching him and hugging him for it, but at that moment could be nothing but grateful. As soon as they were aboard Archie he cut the top off of one of the gallon jugs of water and submerged Rorschach, his poor symbiont all clenched up into the size and shape of a hen's egg. It radiated pain and then relief at the touch of the water. After it had loosened a little, he carried the jug closer to the engine, setting it on the floor where the soothing sound and vibration of the ship could run through Rorschach, calming it and easing the pain.

Dan could barely tear his gaze away long enough to take off, wondering what the hell that was and what had happened to his partner's clothes. It seemed to be alive, the way he took care of it, and made Dan think of the loving way Rorschach had always straightened his cuffs and smoothed his coat, and his obsessive devotion to keeping his hat even at risk of life and limb.

"What is that?"

"Complicated." Rorschach covered himself with his hands, blushing. "Need clothes."

"Hang on." Dan put on the autopilot and grabbed a spare suit. Rorschach looked like a kid in an oversized Halloween costume in it, but at least he was covered. "So seriously. What is that thing?"

"...Symbiotic life form."

"Woah."

"I'm sorry I was rude earlier. I don't have a metabolic condition."

"Yeah, that's what I was figuring out."

"It can only obtain nutrients through me or directly from the air."

"In New York? Poor thing."

After all the exposures of the night, Walter couldn't really say much against going upstairs to the kitchen when they got back to Daniel's house. Rorschach was calmer now, swirling happily in the jug, and Walter had to smile, carefully carrying it up and setting it on the table as Daniel made coffee.

 _Sugar?_ Rorschach's "voice" is hopeful, and Walter chuckles, snagging five cubes and tenderly feeding them into the psuedopod Rorschach extends over the side.

"So it can eat sugar directly?"

"Yes, but that's the only thing."

"...Wow. So, uh, how does it work?"

_Can tell him for us._

"It can tell you, if you want."

"Seriously? Uh, okay." He came over and set the mugs of coffee down, examining the jug and its occupant. "So how does this--woah!"

If Rorschach had been a cat, it would have purred, flowing happily up Daniel's arm. It had only been able to touch him glancingly before, and never to speak. Words had never actually come easily for it, so at first all it could do was coil around Daniel's arm and send him all the love and protectiveness it felt for Walter, and its memories of bonding with him, and of assuming the shape of Rorschach's costume.

"Uh, wow." Dan stared at the living black and white on his skin, still reeling a little. "...I... I'm glad you two have each other, man."

_Glad we have you._

"Woah."

And it was as easy as that. Almost anyone else Walter could think of would have run in horror or started dissecting his symbiont, and there was Daniel, feeding it sugar cubes and petting it like a kitten. It had even shaped itself into something kittenish, humming happily. Walter wasn't surprised when Rorschach took to Daniel, frequently flowing onto him and talking to him. They argued about it back in Walter's apartment the way they hadn't argued about anything since the beginning of their bond. In those first days Walter had fought the pleasure Rorschach tried to provide him, his self-hate like knives.

But Rorschach had worn him down until he would touch himself without too much shame, and then until he would let it touch him. They shared everything else, so of course it knew how Walter felt about his partner. And shared that feeling, even as Daniel cluelessly petted and fed it, lavishing it with affection that Walter wasn't sure he could bear directly. When Daniel gave Rorschach a little kiss on what was for the moment its head, Walter tried not to gasp audibly. He had always dreamed and thought about Daniel, but now it was far, far... he would have said worse, before Rorschach found him. 

After, it was just more, and the first lazy Sunday morning he got found him and Rorschach entwined on his bed. There were two extensions of it inside him, one filling his mouth, stroking his tongue and muffling his moans as the other fucked him slow and deep, Rorschach purring in his mind about what a good boy he was, what a good host, and how wonderful Daniel would feel inside him, inside _them_.


	4. Chapter 4

Dan took copious notes on Rorschach, and blushed every time he thought of it and Walter when he was alone. He felt like a complete pervert for imagining how that slick, uncanny coolness would feel on his cock and inside him, how it might taste. As far as he could tell, the creature was asexual and its host probably was too, so he had been carefully blocking that part of it mind from it during their contact. The symbiont could probably force the confidence, but Dan knows like he knows his own name that the creature is far too polite.

Weeks later, Dan finds himself once again staring down the barrel of his own perversions. It's time to borrow Rorschach, and Dan can only hope that he doesn't completely humiliate himself. He takes a deep breath, and reminds himself to do everything he can to return Rorschach's telepathic courtesy and not be creepy at it.

"So, how does this work?"

"Have to strip. Can't wear real clothes under symbiont."

"Uh. Okay." Dan swallowed and complied, fiercely willing himself not to get hard. The chill in the air at least helped with that, Archie's walls not keeping all of it out. "So..."

"One moment." Walter wrapped himself in a blanket, and Rorschach started to melt and shift, flowing off of it him as it reverted to its natural black and white, pooling at his feet before twirling itself into an egg shape, larger and looser than it had in response to fire.

"I'm never gonna get over how cool that is."

Walter actually chuckled slightly, and scooped the symbiont up, carrying it to Dan. "Glad you like it." He put the egg shape on Dan's head, holding it there for just a moment before it started to drip down, heavy, cool, and fluid without being the least bit wet.

"Woah."

"It is a peculiar sensation."

"Uh, what are you gonna wear?"

"Have other clothing."

 _You're warm._ Rorschach purred as it wrapped around Dan.

He did his best not to whimper. "Uh, thanks?"

"You don't have to talk out loud to Rorschach, you know."

"Yeah. Yeah, I do, it's just... weird."

"I know."

_Will take good care of you. I've never been scrubs, you may have to help me get it right._

Dan grinned. _Okay._ Together and with some tweaking and critique from Walter, it at last looked right and passed tactile inspection.

Walter stepped back, folding his arms and nodding. "Now. Get in and get out, and take care of each other."

Dan nodded. "We will, man." With Rorschach wrapped around him, his clothes alive and cradling him, he could begin to imagine how much his partner must have missed it already. Walter just nodded, and gestured for Dan to get out and get to it, which he did.

The hospital was at least one he had been to, and Rorschach and Walter had thoughtfully crept in one night and at least found the right room before being discovered and having to flee across the rooftops to arrive as a chocolate-deprived bundle at the top of Dan's kitchen stairs. Since the big revelation, Walter had opened up a bit about his physical capabilities, and Dan could feel the increased strength and agility, trying not to bounce down the hall like a goddamn speed freak.

Walter paced the ship, feeling useless and helpless and very, very lonely. Every inch of skin was cold, and he found himself running his hands over his own body after an embarrassingly short amount of time. It would have disgusted him, before. Even without Rorschach in his mind, he could see it for the self-soothing gesture it was. He dropped the blanket and pulled on clothes and a ski mask, checking the time and trying not to worry.


	5. Chapter 5

It was far from the first time anything odd had happened on graveyard shift, but even the most seasoned campaigners had to admit a fake orderly who turned out to be Rorschach was pretty damn weird. To say nothing of the random lunatic in a ski mask who burst in just as security was closing in on him and put two men in the ER, or the way the orderly's uniform just sort of flowed into Rorschach's costume, like goddamn wax. And of course, only one person had seen Rorschach scoop up his pal and make an inhuman leap onto a fire escape, but he wasn't the type to make things up.

"God, I'm sorry," Dan gasped, taking Archie up.

"Could have happened to anyone," Walter muttered, still embarrassed from being carried. Rorschach had settled itself into Nite Owl's costume, and it was only after they were well away and hidden above cloud cover that Dan set the ship to hover and turned to his partner. "So. Nice mask, man."

"Hurmph."

Dan chuckled and stood up. _Okay, Rorschach. It's been a pleasure._

 _Always, dear one._ The symbiont flowed off of him, leaving him feeling more naked than naked, and suddenly cold. It gathered itself in his hand, forming an egg again, black and white shifting lazily.

"That is so cool."

Walter just chuckled and stripped under the blanket again, holding it around himself with one hand and reaching for Rorschach with the other. It flowed from Dan's hand to his, and neither of them could help gasping at the strange intimacy of the transfer. Rorschach poured itself over Walter again as Dan got dressed, and then it was back to the Nest to pore over their prize.

They had had their suspicions about the Underboss's true identity, and with the allergy that had nearly killed him when Rorschach had slung him through a grocery window and into a pile of strawberries neatly noted in all caps and recent treatment for part of a throwing crescent lodged in his leg, this had to be their guy.

"It's fucking folkloric," Dan muttered, examining the file.

"The harm we can do him with his true name?"

"Exactly."

Harm him they did, the file the last string in their net. Complete as it was, it still took a sleepless ten days to cast and reel in, Rorschach sliding from one to the other as they needed strength and fortitude, both of them devouring sugar and meat to fuel what amounted to a justice bender.

"You know, buddy," Dan murmured, sprawled out on the floor, the news still blathering about the Underboss's capture, "when this is over I don't think I'm gonna want a candy bar for at least a month."

"Think my palate's adjusted over time."

"Guess so."

"...Thank you for the meat. Know it's expensive."

"Oh hell. Mi casa, su casa. Mi comida, su comida. Mi dulce definitely su dulce, I think I'm gonna be sick."


	6. Chapter 6

Walter felt as though he should protest more, but with Daniel and Rorschach both asking him to stay he didn't stand a chance. He accepted the guest room, and as a miserable cold rain started, he was glad to be somewhere warmer and more comfortable than his apartment.

Rorschach casually looped around his torso in a snake-like shape. _He feels the same about you._

Walter squeaked, and blushed as red as his hair. ...Really? By way of answer, Rorschach bathed him in images, feelings, and memories of Daniel's that it had gleaned over the past two weeks. Walter moaned, and turned his face to the pillow to muffle it. Rorschach radiated fondness, its tail wrapping around his cock and squeezing.

_We should go to him, you know._

Dan counted sheep in the dark and tangled his covers into a rope before kicking them off altogether, only to get cold and gather them up again, fretting at the creased mass. He stuck his head under the pillow and groaned, fighting the compelling and crazy urge to head on down to the guest room and crawl in next to Walter and Rorschach.

Ever since bonding with Rorschach, Walter's dreams had been... different. New images, scents, the taste of alien fruit. He sometimes dreamed that he was a symbiont himself, a shimmering rust red one floating beside Rorschach over unearthly vistas. That night he dreamed of fire, one of Rorschach's nightmares. Even in the midst of the terror he knew it wasn't his, and woke up gasping, calling to Rorschach until it answered, scared and shaky, clinging to him and longing for Daniel, wanting his warmth for both of them.

Dan had actually managed to doze off when a presence in the room woke him right up again. He cracked one eye to see his partner creeping in, covered head to foot in swirling black and white. It was beautiful and eerie, and Dan just lay where he was and watched, shivering as his partner slid into bed beside him, the mattress dipping with his weight.

"Uh, hi." He gasped at the cool touch of Rorschach on his wrist.

_Hi._

"...Rorschach had a nightmare," Walter muttered, the symbiont flowing down his arm to cuddle in against Dan's chest.

"Oh? And what do symbionts dream about?" He murmured, stroking the black and white mass, making it quiver happily.

_Dreamed about fire. Glad I'm awake now._

"And you are, buddy. Awake and safe." Rorschach purred, and stayed where it was for a while before spreading out and wrapping around Dan's chest and shoulders, making him shiver. "R-rorschach..."

_Know you want us. Want you too. Love you._

The truth in that statement nearly knocked the wind out of him, and Walter whimpered, coming closer and wrapping an arm and a leg over Dan, blushing in their shared nakedness. They both gasped and shuddered as Rorschach oiled over them both, creating that same strange intimacy and holding it this time, so sweet it was unbearable. Dan moaned, crying out as the symbiont flowed lower. He rested his forehead against his partner's, staring into those feral eyes as Rorschach twined around them both, heavy and cool and unlike any touch Dan had even imagined.

"God, Walter..."

"Touches me like this."

"...Now I know what I'm going to dream about for the rest of my life."

Walter chuckled softly, blushing and then groaning helplessly into Dan's shoulder as Rorschach worked a tendril deep inside him. A moment later Dan echoed him, the sound rising to a shocked squeak as more and more poured into him, stretching him wide. He cursed, breathless, then moaned as another pseudopod extended, sliding into his mouth and finally answering his question. Rorschach tasted very faintly sweet, and otherwise like nothing at all, filling Dan's mouth and fucking across his tongue. He could tell it was transmitting the sensation to Walter, and shuddered at the way his partner cried out, voice stuttering and breaking.

Answering Dan's desire, Rorschach slid out of his mouth so he could kiss Walter, devouring his mouth and muffling both of them as they moaned and came, collapsing together in a shattered mess. Still shuddering and weak, a sudden aftershock gripped them, shaking them mercilessly, Rorschach's climax shared three ways as the symbiont roiled and bubbled and finally rolled off the bed to hit the floor with a splat. There was silence after that until Dan found the energy to giggle.

"Hrrumph." Walter flopped over and dropped his hand over the edge of the bed, letting his symbiont climb up it to pool in a happy ellipse on his back, trilling in both their minds as Dan stroked it, lazily nuzzling Walter's neck.


End file.
